Your Voice Is a Garden
A two-part embodied writing series in Portland, Maine.
Session I: Discovering January 4th - February 8th
Session II: Deepening March 1st - March 29th
Language is a bridge to the body. The body is a bridge to language.
Which sounds simple, but can radically reorient our lives. Most of the time we’re managing, and not slowing down to notice what are organisms are speaking.
What seeds might we plant in the soil of our becoming? What futures are waiting to be named? What histories might settle differently once fully included?
“The stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own.” - mary oliver
“just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate, this isn't a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak. - mary oliver from praying
“This is why utterance is magic. Words do have power. Names have power. Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.” Ursual Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind
When we learn to listen from within and practice writing - and naming - that dignifies our real experience, worlds open.
The simple practice of embodied writing
What if your own body, voice, and creativity could guide you towards a different way of attending?
Join us for The Field of Attention, an immersive, two-part series to explore attention through embodied writing. Over each 5-week session, we’ll combine gentle movement and breath exercises with writing prompts and (optional) sharing in a small-group setting to tend to your attention, your creativity, and your inner unfolding.
Session I: Discovering January 5th - February 9th
Session II: Deepening March 2nd - March 30th
Monday evenings, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m, Good Medicine Collective in Portland, Maine.
Register for one or both sessions:
In Session I: Discovering, we explore voice through the body, inviting practices that support going inward, resourcing, and range. We listen for the richness inside engaged spaciousness.
In Session II: Deepening, we play in the subtle energetics of earliest spring, listening for how our voice moves and grows. We explore language as an empathic and dynamic field.
Throughout, we’ll bring playfulness, curiosity, and deep creativity to our explorations. Our approach will be gentle and expansive, taking inspiration from poets, writers, musicians, children, the natural world, body sites, seasons, fascia, bones, and the numinous. We’ll let our breath and body guide our writing, discovering new connections, and making space for intuition, mystery, and creative impulse.
“Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
The course is for those who:
Want to step more fully into their lives and bodies
Appreciate spacious witness and collective support
Seek support and tools for tending their attention
Are interested in inhabiting their creativity with more self-trust and ease
Want to commit more fully to their own writing, embodiment, and inner rhythms
The course supports you to:
Strengthen your voice & writing in a community of care
Develop creativity and embodied writing practices
Discover new portals for connecting to attention
Become more familiar with your own rhythms & resources
Connect to your own creativity, intuition, & even joy
Learn body-specific exercises to unwind your own stuck places
Deepen your writing practice with ease and authenticity
Our beautiful meeting space at Good Medicine Collective.
The Field of Attention includes:
Weekly Embodied Writing classes: In depth exercises and evocative writing prompts along with (optional) sharing in the context of a small, supportive group
Gentle, guided movement and breath exercises from a bodyworker with deep experience in anatomy, myofascial technique, and somatic approaches to the nervous system
Rich catalogue of poetry, music, body techniques, and other resources to keep you inspired and support your own explorations
A supportive, kind, & local community of fellow writers, movers, and empaths
Snacks & tea because… nourishment is essential ;)
Facilitator
Photo: Molly Haley
I’m Johanna
a biodynamic craniosacral therapist, a teacher, a writer, an audio producer, and someone who knows autoimmune disease and the benefits of creative practice. I facilitate spaces where we can listen to what our bodies are actually saying in order to inhabit ourselves more fully. I believe in abundant permission, reverence, and the vitality of creativity. Read more.
My book, Write Yourself Home, published by North Atlantic is a creative guide to living well is the body you have through gentle movement and embodied writing practice on embodied writing as a tool for living well in the body you have. from North Atlantic Books. More about the book.
Following the Creative Breath will be hosted and assisted by the wonderful Lara Turnure, a gifted bodyworker, yoga teacher, educator, and friend!
Course Themes
Each week we’ll be guided by themes to deepen our exploration through somatic writing. We’ll also leave room for fluidity in our structure - following the group’s evolution and interests.
Session I: Discovering
Jan. 4: Your attention please. Building somatic tools for resource and attention.
Jan. 12: Roots. Lineages & ancestries of attention.
Jan. 19: MLK Day. No class.
Jan. 26: Bone deep. Creating spaces that support attention.
Feb. 2: Of the earth. Working with seasons, nature, timing and the fascia to discern surface and dropping in.
Feb. 9: Love is space. How do we adorn the inner sanctum as practice? Letting sensitivity & intuition nourish attention.
Session II: Deepening
Mar. 2: Preparing the soil. Attending to our bodies & building language for attention.
Mar. 9: Bottom up. Exploring bodied awareness beneath language.
Mar. 16: Presence without scrutiny. Moving through focal points, peripheries, and the wild in between.
Mar. 23: Two cells wider. Inspired by Susan Raffo, feeling the dynamic between what is and what could be.
Mar. 30: Baby steps. Following curiosity, beauty, & intuition. Incubating new ways of moving / being / attending.
A sample somatic writing practice
See the .pdf or listen to the audio below.
How it works
The Field of Attention is a two-part immersive course to explore attention through embodiment and writing. Each session includes 5 workshops; you’re welcome to register for one or both.
Schedule.
Session I: Discovering meets Mondays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the following dates: January 4th, January 11th, January 25th, February 1st, February 8th. Please note we won’t be meeting on MLK day (January 18th)
Session II: Deepening meets Mondays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the following dates: March 1st, March 8th, March 15th, March 22nd, March 29th.
Location. We’ll meet in the beautiful meeting space upstairs at Good Medicine Collective located at 231 York Street in Portland, Maine. In the event of icy winter weather we’ll meet online.
Cost. Sessions I & II, 10 weeks: $685. $925 Early bird price until Dec. 15th $635. $875
Single 5-week session: $360. $485 Early bird price until Dec. 15th $335 $450
Payment plans are available. $200 deposit to register. In addition, limited scholarships are available for marginalized folx and those in great financial need. Please contact me if you’d like to learn about scholarships or donate to make this option more widely available to others.
The Field of Attention is limited to a small group of 8-10 participants.
Questions & Answers
Are meetings recorded?
Nope! This is a live, in-person class. Please check your calendar to make sure you can join for most (hopefully, all!) meetings. If you need to miss a class, I’m happy to share class sequence and materials afterwards.
What if I don’t identify as a writer?
Identifying as a writer is no prerequisite! Many (many!) of us wrestle with this fraught designation. If writing is an interesting or occasional outlet, if you like to play with words, or are simply open to trying - that’s perfect :-)
I have another question - where can I find the answer?
Please be in touch directly via the contact page.